On Saturday, Matt Meyer and I hiked Pyramid, Pine, and Lion Mountains along the desert divide. The hiking was relatively easy, and the peaks were more like bumps on a long ridge, though the views did not disappoint. The highlight of the day was climbing the summit boulder on the top of Pine Mountain. The massive piece of stone pokes into the skyline and is easily seen from the surrounding valleys, ten to twenty or even more miles away. We climbed the class 3 lower part of the boulder before roping up, then stepped across a deep gap, where Matt led the climb, placing a few small cams on the way up to the top. We left a few slings on 2 bolts on top, and rappelled off before hightailing it back to the truck. We refreshed ourselves with a cold beer before grabbing dinner at the Paradise Café and crashing out on Santa Rosa Rd off the 74.

Sunday morning we met Kevin McCowen at 6am back at the Paradise Café, before driving up to Idyllwild to climb a route called White Maiden’s Walkway, a 6-pitch 5.4 rock climb on Tahquitz Rock. We ended up starting out on The Illegitimate (5.8), and probably didn’t climb much of White Maiden’s Walkway at all. Whatever we did climb was great fun though with lots of fun moves, and I was stoked to finally get to climb on Tahquitz. Thanks to Matt and Kevin for leading!